Brothers Andy and Jamie Murray reach Wimbledon semifinals in singles

Gasquet began brightly but from the moment he double-faulted to lose the second set it seemed unlikely he would make it through.

It was a long and emotional day of quarter-final tennis at Wimbledon on Wednesday.

Vasek Pospisil of Canada returns a shot to Andy Murray of Britain during the men’s quarterfinal singles match at …

Just as the top four men’s seeds seemed set to contest the Wimbledon semi-finals for the first time in 20 years, Frenchman Richard Gasquet fired a broadside of backhands straight through the script.

Gasquet’s victory denied tennis fans a French Open final sequel between Djokovic and Wawrinka.

He was intent on not being put through another test of endurance against Cilic, overcoming the United States Open champion in an emphatic display.

Here’s a closer look at the day’s events.

“I played a lot of tennis, how much that affected the match is hard to say”, said Pospisil.

“It would be a tough one for me no doubt but I’m looking forward to it”.

“I think when I played him he was a bit cooked, to be honest”.

“It’s a great feeling as it’s a big match”. Pospisil and American partner Jack Sock were defeated last week as they defended their 2014 doubles title, only adding to Pospisil’s workload. Players have 30 seconds to serve after the previous point.

Having served out the first set with a 116 miles per hour bullet, the second set with a 122 miles per hour missile, Federer tried to finish off the match with a flourish by hurling down a second serve thunderbolt.

“The stop and go with the rain are always tough but I think I used them to my advantage”.

“I want to enjoy it, to play a better match than I did in Paris”, said Gasquet. “I was right about to serve the ball. If he would have waited one second longer, I would have served”.

Federer, runner-up to Djokovic 12 months ago, will be playing in his 10th Wimbledon semi-final and 37th at all the majors.

“Everybody knows that.” Going for his third title, the top-ranked Serb was in total control, as he never faced a break point and extended his career mastery over Cilic, the reigning USA Open champion, to 13-0. “I don’t know why they do it at a time like that”, Pospisil said. The two have competed against each other 23 times previously, with Federer winning 12 of those matches. His first Wimbledon semifinal was in 2007 losing to eventual champion Roger Federer.

In a battle of brilliant one-handed backhands, Gasquet displayed variety and plenty of grit edging fourth-seeded Stan Wawrinka, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 11-9 in a thriller to advance to the Wimbledon final four for the first time in eight years.

LONDON (AP) – The top 3 men – Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray – sailed into the Wimbledon semifinals in straight sets.

This was a very different Federer to the one who destroyed Roberto Bautista Agut on Monday in an unremitting onslaught of aggression. “When you see the lineup of (Roger) Federer and (Novak) Djokovic and (Andy) Murray then me – well I’m amazed”.

Federer will be meeting Murray at Wimbledon for the first time since the magical summer of 2012 when he beat the Scot to land his record-equalling seventh title there before Murray turned the tables in the Olympic final.

“Obviously an experience of being in these final stages of Wimbledon many times is going to help me to approach it in a proper way”, Djokovic said. This semi-final was billed as the battle of the backhands, with both these players boasting a swashbuckling one-armed stroke which has the purists purring.

But, at 5-4 down in the fourth, Wawrinka produced a first double fault of the match to send the engrossing tie between players boasting two of the best backhands in the sport into a fifth set.

Djokovic, a two-time champion at the All England Club, will next face either Stan Wawrinka or Richard Gasquet, who were in the fifth set on Court 1.

Federer is hardly the type to let records affect his approach, especially when serving for a set, but there can be no doubt the end of his stunning service streak will leave the focus elsewhere ahead of his last-four clash.